HOLLIS Catalog record]]> HOLLIS Catalog record]]> HOLLIS Catalog record]]> Department of Archeology and Anthropology
National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan, China

December 30, 1967

Mrs. Rulan Chao Pian
Department of Far Eastern Languages
Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Dear Mrs. Pian:

Your letter of November 16 reached me on the 23rd. By that time I had already gone up the mountain; therefore, I was not able to reply to your letter immediately. After the whole expedition I was tied down both with school work and my own work and I was not able to write you until now. Please accept my apologies. I shall now give you a brief report on the recording sessions during this expedition.

On the 22nd of November my husband, Sung Lungsheng, and I departed in the late afternoon from Taipei heading for Miaoli Hsien. We reached our destination, Hsiang t'ien Hu (Lake?), toward evening, and were put up at Mr. Feng kuoyen's home. Because the ceremony will not begin until the 25th, the people in the tribe during these couple of days were simply busily making preparations. The sessions for practice of the ceremonial songs are now over. All we did then was to ask a couple of young men some details concerning the ceremony, and to make a general survey of the area where the event was to take place so that we could set up the recording equipment. Because the recording plans were made rather in a hurry this time, there was not a UHRE machine in stock at the store when we went to buy it. The Asia Electrical and Appliances Company, however, was trying its best to help us under the circumstances by loaning us their own machine (UHRE-S) temporarily. There was also a shortage of scotch recording tape on 5" reels. We got only 8 reels; the other 20-odd reels were rewound from 12" reels.

On the 24th, we persuaded our proprietor and his wife, an old couple, to sing in turn, a portion of the ceremonial songs, which we recorded.

On the 25th, at 5:00 A.M. The Ceremony for the Dwarf Spirits officially began. The opening ceremony was participated by the exclusive members of the family. Although we had already paid them money for breaking the taboo, we were still not permitted to make recordings at this part of the ceremony. What we did was to hire an old man to sing for us in private, the first two sections of the ceremonial songs. However, this itself was also an offense and we had to pay for that too. On the same day at 6:00 P.M., the singing of ceremonial songs began again. The weather was very bad; it was raining and it was very windy. We followed them with our recording machine. (They danced while they sang, holding hands in a circle. The first line of each song was begun by a solo singer, and the rest-by the group.) Then, probably due to the rain, our UHRE machine was out of commission, so we had to continue the recording with our small portable Philip. We were fortunate to have brought this extra machine as a precaution. Therefore our work was not interrupted by this mishap. The songs which were sung during this entire evening were merely repetitions of two pieces. In order to protect our machine we recorded two reels of tape only.

On the morning of the 26th my brother-in-law, Sonq Longwen, who came along to assist me, rushed back to Taipei with the UHRE to have it repaired. From the evening of the 26th to the morning of the 27th, the recording progressed fairly smoothly. On the 27th, Sonq Longwen came back with the UHRE and we used that again on the same evening. From then on, our work was no longer hindered by mechanical failures.

However, on the 27th, at 00:00, the ceremony entered into a stage of frenzy. The number of participants increased greatly. Even the spectators who came from the Plains joined in. The space where the ceremony was held was not very big to begin with. Now it was packed. The tunes which were somewhat melancholy at first were now more spirited. The dance also changed from the slow, pedestrian steps to the quick back and forth running. This made it very difficult for us to keep up with them as before. At first we did try to follow the performers with our machine through the crowd. But at one point, the reel of tape fell to the ground and was trampled. We had to retreat to the outer edge of the performing circle. There were in fact only a small number of people among the performers who could sing the ceremonial songs, and they were placed in the foremost and innermost position in the circle. That would have been the best place for recording. However, being also the sacredmost area for the Dwarf Spirits, we were forbidden there. Recording at the periphery of the ceremony naturally had many disadvantages; we could hear more noise than music, and regret very much that the recordings are less satisfactory than we had hoped.

The ceremony ended on the 29th. Mr. Tung Min had taken many photographs throughout the ceremony. Although the weather was not ideal, the pictures were fairly clear. We shall mail them to you together with the 18 reels of tapes. (The 18 reels of 5" tapes arrived March 20th; the pictures March 27- RCP)

Originally I planned to jot down the text of the songs. Unfortunately, even the old men in the Saysiat tribe no longer remembered clearly the words or meaning of the songs. We asked several informants about it without success. They either said that they did not remember them or that it was too difficult to explain, or that they simply did not understand the words. Therefore this part of our plans did not materialize at all. In the afternoon of the 29th we were able to engage, after considerable effort, a Chu Chenfa and a Tou Jungmei (husband and wife) to sing for us the ceremonial songs as they know them. Although they sang only 9 pieces, this little extra material was worthwhile. These songs sung by solo voices were much clearer than the ones sung by the group.

On the first of December, in the morning, we returned to Taipei. The new UHRE machine ordered from the Asia Electrical Appliances. Company finally arrived on the 19th of this month. The price was slightly reduced--down to NT$14300. (US$ 357.50). Becuase [sic] this was bought through the official channel of the Purchasing Department of the University, we were not able to bargain with them for a reduction. The set of duplicate tapes dubbed for the Department of Archeology 3 of Taiwan University has just been completed. The tapes for you will be mailed within one or two days through the school. Having tapes inspected at the customs is a very complicated procedure, therefore we thought that sending them through the University would make it a little easier.

We have certainly done everything we could on this expedition. We only hope that you are not too disappointed with the results. If there is anything else that we could do for you, please let us know.

Wishing you a Happy New Year
Sincerely Yen Mien

(tran. by R. C. Pian)
cc: President Ch'ien Ssu-liang
Prof. Ch'en Ch'i-lu
Prof. John C. Pelzel
Mrs. Yen Mien
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